Plastic Free Home – five years on
We have always described that as our “wake-up moment” – many of our long-standing thoughts and beliefs were crystalised and we felt inspired and implored to do more.
It is perhaps fitting then that Plastic Free Home marks its fifth birthday during a week in which ‘Mr PFH’ finished reading Sir David’s brilliant book, A Life on Our Planet, and COP28, labelled a “landmark summit” by the BBC, concluded with the signing of an agreement to “transition away from fossil fuels”.
Back in December 2018, we said that if we were lucky enough to find 100 like-minded followers locally, it would be worth continuing. Our simple aim was to seek and share information on how we can all live more sustainably, as we continued our own journey towards doing so.
We were therefore humbled when, relatively quickly, we reached 1,000 followers and, that same year, 10,000. Today we are very grateful to have more than 45,000 followers across at least 25 countries.
In the past five years we have written hundreds of articles, many of which have featured in national and regional media (including this very publication), while appearing on several local BBC radio stations and speaking at a variety of events.
It is amazing to think that we have reached many hundreds of thousands of people, possibly more, during this time – every so slightly exceeding our initial target.
We have met and connected with some brilliant, like-minded, people including zero waste and eco-friendly businesses and their owners; charities, social enterprises and community groups; journalists and authors; scientists and researchers and those involved in politics. Among the many highlights so far are receiving a handwritten letter from Sir David Attenborough in response to ours thanking him; meeting Professor Ed Hawkins, the man who gave the world the now iconic climate stripes; and interviewing Professor Sir Brian Hoskins CBE, one of the world’s pre-eminent experts on the subject of meteorology and climate change and a former member of the UK Committee on Climate Change for more than a decade.
If you have engaged with and enjoyed Plastic Free Home at any stage in the last five years, thank you for caring and keep going.
So, with our original aim in mind, what have we learned?
That each and every one of us can make a real difference by working to reduce the impact we have on the world around us, and that doing so doesn’t detract from our everyday lives, it helps to enrich them.
Through thinking about what we buy and how much we consume (what it is made from, who by and where? Is a better option available and do we need it at all?), eliminating waste and reusing and recycling more, using resources like energy and water sensibly, reducing our meat consumption and food miles, travelling responsibly, caring for the natural world, starting in our own gardens and local communities, and supporting worthwhile causes and projects wherever we can.
Oh, and that in hindsight Plastic Free Home wasn’t the right name (it’s too late to change it now), because the challenge at-hand extends far beyond the plastic problem that dominated headlines back in 2018 and was our initial focus.
In fact, the most significant and impactful changes we have made as a family have little to do with plastic.
These include living in an A-rated energy efficient home and switching to a green tariff, swapping our main family car for an electric vehicle, opting to no-longer fly, all being vegetarian and continuing to think very carefully about what we buy whilst reducing our waste.
Who knows what the next five years will bring – the past five have been unprecedented in many ways. COP28 may have brought us renewed hope but one thing we do all know is that we will be edging ever closer to 2030, 2050 and other such target dates often cited by governments and big businesses and the window during which we can bring about the changes needed to limit or even reverse some of the worst impacts of climate change will be closing.
(Hopefully) see you on the other side.